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Kitchen Queries

Welcome to Kitchen Queries, where the nigella.com team will answer your cooking or food related questions. We’d love you to submit some of your recipe problems, dilemmas or queries for us to get our teeth into!

The Guinness Cake from Feast looks incredibly yummy! I want to make this for my husband's birthday but he prefers cupcakes. Any ideas on how long to bake for regular sized cupcakes and mini cupcakes? Thank you for your time!

In Nigella's Autumnal Birthday Cake (from How to be a Domestic Goddess), the icing ingredients include 1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar. Is this necessary or can it be done without? What does it do? I live in Holland and have not been able to find it here. Is there an alternative ingredient that can be used instead? Thanks a million! Natalia

Hi, I would like to use sea salt in my cooking, but must admit I usually have table salt in the house. My question is when a recipe asks for sea salt, how much would I use of table salt? Thank you, Nads.

I have made Nigella's Devil's Food Cake (from Kitchen) twice and both times I have had to throw it out as the frosting never seems to take on the correct consistency. I use ‘Green and Blacks Dark Chocolate’ and then tried ‘Green and Blacks Dark Organic 72% Cocoa Dark Cooks’ Chocolate’ as I though the cooks’ variety might be the key. It always starts off well and looks rich and glossy however both times I have ended up with a mixture that looks like it has split, is very liquid and grainy. I have followed the recipe to the letter and cannot work out where I am going wrong. Please help!

Help! I always seem to overcook dried pasta, but the cooking times listed on the box always result in pasta that is way too hard and tastes raw, not al dente. I always keep the water at a full boil when cooking the pasta. What could I be doing wrong? (This is actually a problem I've had for years but never asked anyone!)